Saturday, 6 April 2013

Week Two of the Soap Challenge

This is the second week of the Soap Challenge brought to the soaping world by Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks. Once again, the challenge brings a swirling method that I've never attempted. Okay, that's not technically ENTIRELY true.

The challenge this week is the Elemental Swirl first documented by the Otion Soap Blog. It's a combination of two in the pot swirls separated by a mica vein. The separate in the pot swirls are to be contrasting colours.

I've made plenty of in the pot swirls, but never two in one batch and I rarely attempt mica veins. So this challenge was a combination of the familiar and the foreign. Which is excellent, actually.

In the challenge we were all advised to pick a slow moving fragrance. Time, you see, is a factor in this swirl. Well, I've never been one for playing it safe in mixing fragrances and today's batch was no different. Although I did not through all condition to the wind.

My sister requested a batch for a friend of her's who has a love affair with the coast. I didn't have any salt air notes in my stash but I think I came up with something intriguing. The blend is a combination of dried leaves, freshly cut grass, spring rains and a touch of vetiver and wildflowers. It reminds me of misting rains at Golden Ears, the mountain that lays at the eastern edge of Maple Ridge.

In any case, the fragrance blend contains a whole lot of scent components that are not exactly cooperative. Did that dissuade me from making this blend for this swirl! Never!

My colour choices are not as contrasting as they could be but that was intentional. My bottom layer is a combination of three purples, two shades of blue and teal. The mica fain is a metallic red. I topped the soap with a light sprinkle of red and gold glitter.

At the time of the pour, the purples were fainter, and redder than I wanted. The blues were paler too. After the soap had been sitting in the mold for a while I realized that I'd made an amateurish mistake with my colourants. I used half as much as I normally would unintentionally. Bad math. Sigh.

In any case, the soap cut is both ugly and pretty. I had TD explosions instead of just TD rivers and the in the bottom layer it sort of looks like pig fat. Not exactly attractive. Swirl-wise, the soap is nice, the top layer is water-like and pretty. The bottom is gross. If I had had enough time this week to take another shot at this soap I would have. Time was simply not on my side this week.

So here it is:

What I will likely end up doing with this soap is cutting the top layer off and turning it into chunks for another soap. For now it's just... This.

About Me

Hi Everyone. I'm Robyn aka Littlebird. I've been soaping for 3-4yrs now. It started on a win and I became well and truly obsessed from the word go and I poured myself into the craft.
Out side of soaping I am a Criminology student steadying to work in Victims Services.